MyGlasgow News

When the Queen’s Baton arrives in Glasgow this summer, it will carry with it the sporting ambitions of thousands of sportsmen and women from across the Commonwealth nations.

Glasgow 2014, however, is more than a sporting event. It is also a cultural exchange and the University is right at the heart of delivering the legacy of the Games.

Aspirational the Hunterian Museum certainly is, having opened its “Scottish Gold” exhibition, a spectacular array of Scottish gold items from the Bronze Age to the present.

A number of students and graduates have either been selected to represent their country or are on the brink of being so - and they will be hoping to bring home their own Scottish Gold medals. They include Lynda Flaws, a third-year sports science student, who is a strong contender for the Scotland table tennis squad for the Games.

A very different interpretation of that sport will be on show on June 14, with the performance of Ping!, by Joe Cutler, at the Bute Hall. To the accompaniment of the Coull String Quartet, members of the Fusion Table Tennis Club will demonstrate the poise, focus and precision of table tennis blended with that of musicians. As part of a series of sports-related music events, “Sounds of Sports: Glasgow”, a new work by University of Glasgow composer Nick Fells for amplified bikes and string quartet will be premiered alongside Ping!

The following day will see 111 cyclists performing Mauricio Kagel’s “Eine Brise” (A Breeze) around the campus.

Further Games-related music events include a concert on Friday, June 6, by the a cappella ensemble Black Voices featuring Caribbean, African and Scottish music. On Sunday, June  8, they will return to take part in an afternoon workshop with singers from the University’s Chapel Choir and Madrigirls, before participating in The Big Hymn Sing later in the evening. The Friday concert will embrace the ethos of connectedness central to the Commonwealth agenda while the Sunday workshop will focus on skill-sharing and making the Commonwealth legacy goals sustainable.

Public engagement is the underlying theme of the University’s involvement in the Games. Three evening events, all held in June and all being recorded for use by the John Beattie show on BBC Radio Scotland, will feature a number of University academics, including Dr Jason Gill, Dr Cindy Gray and Professor Raymond Boyle. With their expertise across health, behaviour and communications, they address the burning issues of:

• Why are different nations good at different sports?
• Why are we a nation of couch potatoes?
• Is elite sport good for you?

Dr Gray is also behind the development of the Commonwealth Games app for mobile phones, which promotes healthy activity by encouraging people to walk more during the period of the Games.

The promotion of physical fitness is the focus of two further research programmes. Go Well, a five-year study which was launched in 2012, examines the impact of the Games and related regeneration interventions on communities living next to some of the main Games venues in the East End of Glasgow. Football Fans in Training (FFIT), meanwhile, is an initiative that helps male football fans feel better and live a healthier lifestyle by losing weight, taking more exercise and improving their diet.

The security of the Games – for both competitors and spectators - is the focus of a three-year project funded by the European Commission which is being carried out by a multi-disciplinary team led by Professor of Criminology Michele Burman.

Two further initiatives are looking ahead to the next generation: 33Fifty, a Commonwealth Youth Leadership programme which takes up the challenge of developing low-carbon economies; and the Commonwealth Experience course, a one-week course for international students being held the week before the start of the Games.

Catherine Martin, Convener of the University’s Commonwealth Games Group, said: “It has been very gratifying to see the Games-related work of many staff and students in the University community develop successfully in recent months, across sporting achievement, research impact, cultural contribution and public engagement.

“The University is also providing expertise in a number of formal capacities: the University Chaplain, Rev. Stuart MacQuarrie, will be running the chaplaincy service for the Games, supporting participants of all faiths; Dr John MacLean, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, is the Chief Medical Officer for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, working within the organising committee to deliver all aspects of medical services for the Games.”

A number of staff and students have volunteered to take on a variety of roles in the Games. A survey to gauge the overall level of involvement is to be carried out.

http://www.gla.ac.uk/about/commonwealthgames/

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First published: 14 March 2014